The unofficial, unauthorized view of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. The Ancestry Insider reports on, defends, and constructively criticizes these two websites and associated topics. The author attempts to fairly and evenly support both.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Ancestry Family History Center Edition Update

Some Family History Centers (FHCs) don’t know that all FHCs can have free access to the Ancestry Family History Center Edition of Ancestry.com. The FHC Edition gives access to only a few of the 29,987 collections available in the Family History Library Edition at the Salt Lake City, Riverton, and Los Angeles Family History Libraries (and a few other branches). But the available collections are among the most useful.

Since my last report Ancestry.com has added 1906 and earlier U.S. and Canadian censuses. (Notable census exclusions are shown in the table.) They have added index and images to their English 1916-2005 BMD collections. And they have added index and images for the U.S. Passport Application collection.

Oddly, the 1871 England Census is no longer available. I wonder if that is inadvertent?

The collections available through the Ancestry Family History Center Edition are:

Yellow indicates collections whose images are withheld in the FHC Edition; green are available. New collections are designated in green, yellow those that are no longer available. * Collection not listed on the Titles Available page. † Collection originally covered 1837-1983. The index assisted browse, but wasn’t an every-name index.

To see the list “Titles Available at the Family History Center,” go to the Ancestry Family History Center Edition home page and click the link in the box titled “What Can I Search?” The same list is visible outside a center by clicking here.

Our family history center in Muskogee Oklahoma does not have ancestry. It was not included in the "portal" that gives entry into the databases. Can you check this out??? Do all FHC have access, or not?

Should you have to sign in? Or is it supposed to automatically recognize your IP?

I went to ancestryinstitution.com from the Monroe, Utah FHC and it wanted me to sign, and the ladies working didn't know anything about a password. But they didn't know about the FHC Portal either, so...

Does the Ancestry Incsder monitor the comments???? He says "Some Family History Centers (FHCs) don’t know that all FHCs can have free access to the Ancestry Family History Center Edition of Ancestry.com." I commented on the 5th, our FHC is run by a very nice 80+ year old lady. How about explaining the "short cut" to Salt Lake to get this straightened out?

However, family history centers may acquire a limited version of Ancestry.com (Ancestryinstitution.com) by doing the following:

In order to access the http://www.ancestryinstitution.com,your center must have a username and password provided by Ancestry.com. If you do not have a username and password for your center, then you must contact Ancestry.com via email as follows:

1. Send an email to: fhcsupport@ancestry.com. 2. Send the email from the centers LDSMail account. 3. Include the family history center name and unit number in the subject line. 4. Include the following in the body of the email:

Ancestryinstitution.com, a limited version of Ancestry.com, accessed at http://www.ancestryinstitution.com is available to all other official family history centers. This Web site is accessed from the center's own Internet browser (not through the center's FHC Services online portal). Login is required.

FamilySearch Support does not provide support for the Ancestryinstitution.com Web site. However, family history centers can contact FamilySearch Support at 1-866-406-1830 or support@familysearch.org to find out how to access their center's free subscription to Ancestryinstitution.com. All other support is received from Ancestry.com by contacting them at 1-800-509-3884 or fhcsupport@ancestry.com.

Family history centers are asked not to contact Ancestry.com with the intent of acquiring full access to their website. Full access to their site will not be provided to family history centers for the foreseeable future. However, family history centers may acquire a limited version of Ancestry.com (Ancestryinstitution.com) by doing the following:

In order to access the http://www.ancestryinstitution.com,your center must have a username and password provided by Ancestry.com. If you do not have a username and password for your center, then you must contact Ancestry.com via email as follows:

1. Send an email to: fhcsupport@ancestry.com. 2. Send the email from the centers LDSMail account. 3. Include the family history center name and unit number in the subject line. 4. Include the following in the body of the email:

*Purpose of your email (requesting username and password to access http:/www.ancestryinstitution.com). *Family History Center Name. *Center Unit Number. *Center Address. *Center Email Address. *Center Phone Number. *The number of computers located in the center. *Optional: Ancestry.com uses a default password that they assign to the accounts, if you would like your own password for the family history center, then please include it in the email.

Ancestryinstitution.com, a limited version of Ancestry.com, is available to all official family history centers. This Web site is accessed from the center's own Internet browser (not through the center's FHC Services online portal). Login is required.

FamilySearch Support does not provide support for the Ancestryinstitution.com Web site. All support is received from Ancestry.com by contacting them at 1-800-509-3884 or fhcsupport@ancestry.com.

Family history centers are asked not to contact Ancestry.com with the intent of acquiring full access to their website. Full access to their site will not be provided to family history centers for the foreseeable future.

However, family history centers may acquire a limited version of Ancestry.com by doing the following:

In order to access the Ancestryinstitution.com,your center must have a username and password provided by Ancestry.com. If you do not have a username and password for your center, then you must contact Ancestry.com via email as follows:

1. Send an email to: fhcsupport@ancestry.com.2. Send the email from the centers LDSMail account.3. Include the family history center name and unit number in the subject line.4. Include the following in the body of the email: *Purpose of your email (requesting username and password to access Ancestryinstitution.com). *Family History Center Name. *Center Unit Number. *Center Address. *Center Email Address. *Center Phone Number. *The number of computers located in the center. *Optional: Ancestry.com uses a default password that they assign to the accounts, if you would like your own password for the family history center, then please include it in the email.

He does. He writes and maintains this column on his own time, however. Sometimes his real job takes precedence. Sometimes his real life. Sometimes he gets the flu which seems to be lingering forever. May I invite you to call the support number of either Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org, as it may be days or years before I get to your question.

Grrrr...when your tiny FHC is open 1 day a week, it does take months or years to get things done. After working all day today at the FHC I believe I overheard there is page with FHC available products, and a page with instructions, with making you junp through hoops begging Ancestry to send your username and password, with response from ancestry that is timely. But not enough, it didn't come through today, so maybe next week, or sometime.

Please correct me if I'm wrong ... but aren't the Ancestry.com FHC Edition databases also available FREE OF CHARGE on the Ancestry.com website? I believe there are quite a few databases hosted on Ancestry.com for which Ancestry.com is not allowed to charge users to search them. And I believe this has something to do with the copyrights of each of the databases. Of course, Ancestry.com does NOT publicize that many of their databases can be searched by users w/o a paid membership. Nor do they make it easy to figure out how to search these databases. (Hint: on Ancestry.com, navigate to 'Help' and typing in "free databases".)

It's my theory that these "free to access" databases are the databases are available through the FHC Edition of Ancestry.com. So I think the general public can access these databases from any internet connected computer through the Ancestry.com search portal; I don't think users have to be in a FHC to do so.

As I said ... please correct me if I'm am wrong. And if I'm right, would you please make it clear that yes, Ancestry.com is hosting these databases. But they are not being overly generous by giving supposedly free access to patrons of the FHC's (even though Ancestry.com would LOVE to take credit for being so generous). And I'll stop talking now.

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The Ancestry Insider is consistently a top ten and readers’ choice award winner. He has been an insider at both the two big genealogy organizations, FamilySearch and Ancestry.com. He was Time Magazine Man of the Year in both 1966 and 2006. And he really is descended from an Indian princess.

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The Ancestry Insider was a readers’ choice for the top four genealogy news and resources blogs, part of Family Tree Magazine’s “40 Best Genealogy Blogs” for 2010. He reports on the two big genealogy organizations, Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. He was named a “Most Popular Genealogy Blogs” by ProGenealogists, and has received Family Tree Magazine’s “101 Best Web Sites” award every year since 2008. A genealogical technologist, the Insider has a post-graduate technology degree and holds a dozen technology patents in the United States and abroad. He has done genealogy since 1972 and has worked in the computer industry since 1978. He was Time Magazine Man of the Year in both 1966 and 2006. And he really is descended from an Indian princess.

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